Pillar House Folk Club - Up Close and Personal with Andy Irvine

The Pillar House Folk Club celebrated its first anniversary last month with a superb and thoroughly enjoyable performance by Mary Coughlan and as the Summer season continues The Folk Club in this intimate 80-seater venue welcomes the inimitable Andy Irvine on Friday, 17th July at 9pm.

Andy Irvine has enjoyed a long and successful career as a traditional Irish musician. A founding member of Planxty with fellow musicians Christy Moore, Donal Lunny and Liam O’ Flynn, they went on to achieve huge success and legendary status, reigniting traditional music as a popular genre. While Planxty took a break in 1967, Andy took the time to record another piece of work with Paul Brady. The two recorded a classic album together, simply entitled “Andy Irvine & Paul Brady”. Planxty regrouped from 1979 – 1983. When the group permanently disbanded, Andy began his solo career. He recorded his first album “Rainy Sundays…. windy dreams” shortly after. His second album was “Parallel Lines” a duo album with the great Scots troubadour, Dick Gaughan.

Taking a break from working solo, Andy formed a band with Donal Lunny and some European friends called Mozaik. They completed one European summer tour before Andy returned to his solo and collaborative work.  These collaborations led to the formation of Irelands first traditional “super group” Patrick Street. The group consisted of Kevin Burke (Bothy Band), Jackie Daly (De Dannan) and guitar maestro Arty McGlynn. The group toured from 1987–1990, releasing three albums in the process. They would regroup in 1993 to release a further five albums, although in between Andy recorded two solo albums. One of these albums consisted of entirely Balkan music, which Andy had learned on his earlier travels.  In 2002, Andy finally formed his “dream band”, Mozaik, with Donal Lunny, Dutch guitarist Rens van der Zalm, Hungarian bagpiper Nikola Parov and American fiddler Bruce Molsky. The group have completed tours of Australia, Europe and America and have released two highly acclaimed albums

Andy continues to tour the world with Mozaik as well as Patrick Street. He has also completed a brief series of reunion concerts with Planxty and Paul Brady in the last few years. His constant touring is testament to the fact that he is still as passionate about his music as when he began. As a musician and a living icon, Andy Irvine will remain in the Irish music scene for a long time to come.

Tickets are €20 and are available from The Pillar House, Tel: 090 96 43939 / 087 9046140.

Please see www.thepillarhouse.ie for upcoming dates.